Nothing quite like a good midnight movie. Savvy, cinephilic audiences meet provocative, culty film fare at a time when, as Dick Miller observes in Martin Scorsese's After Hours, "different rules apply." The programming for VIFF's new late-night series, Altered States -- handled by longtime Vancouver journalist and VIFF staffer Curtis Woloschuk -- certainly reflects this observation. And what's striking about the series as a whole, is that the movies featured have much of the sophistication usually spotlighted by VIFF -- they're just cranked up a notch.

A part of me wanted to quit; it seemed pointless. I was only sent out for Native roles and even those were few and far between. Something was wrong with the industry. Growing up, I had almost never seen Native people on television. I was frustrated and angry, but something inside me told me if I wanted to change things, I had to stick with it.

Innocence of Muslims aspired and failed to be a film, which was then dubbed, cut, and turned into a hybrid trailer-clip of a YouTube video. The poor production value, and the ignorance put into the creation of this project are far from worthy of the protests, bloodshed, or lives lost. Despite this, the Iranian government has decided to take a stand against the Academy Awards, for not taking a stand against a YouTube video and is boycotting the awards. This reasoning is untenable, and thus it merits some analysis.

While reliving all of The Godfather's plot twists and turns, a thought had occurred to me: what would the Corleone family players have tweeted? How would they have encapsulated their moments in 140 characters or less? And most importantly, would they have been retweet worthy?